Stephanus 85

85a —are what loosen them most of all. The white phlegm, because the breath in its bubbles is caught and grows harsh, though it keeps its milder vents for breathing outside the body, mottles the body with white patches and freckles, and breeds the diseases akin to these. When it is blended with black bile and flung over the courses in the head, the most divine of all, and thrown into confusion with them, it deals out in sleep a gentler poison, 85b but one harder to shake off when it falls upon the waking; and being a disease of a sacred nature, it is most justly called sacred. Sharp, salty phlegm is the source of all the diseases that are catarrhal; and because the places it flows into are of every kind, it has taken every kind of name. As for what is called inflammation of the body, the word comes from burning and blazing—and in every case bile is the cause. When it wins a vent to the outside, seething, it throws up growths of every sort; 85c imprisoned within, it engenders many burning-hot diseases; and the worst of all comes when, blended with pure blood, it tears the race of fibers out of their own well-ordered array—fibers that had been strewn through the blood precisely so that it would keep a due balance of thinness and thickness, and so that, grown hot, it would not run out of the body like a mere liquid thinned away, nor yet, being denser and hard to move, labor its way around the veins. 85d The fibers, formed by nature, keep watch over the due season of all this: when someone gathers them together, even out of blood that is dead and cooling, the whole of the remaining blood breaks into flux; but left to themselves they quickly make it clot along with the cold surrounding it. Black bile—which is by nature blood grown old, and has melted down again out of the flesh into this—falls into the blood at first little by little, hot and moist; but through the power of the fibers 85e it clots; and as it clots and is forcibly quenched, it brings chills and shivering from within.

Timaeus: When still more of it streams in, it masters the fibers with its own heat, boils them into disorder, and shakes them apart; and if it proves strong enough to carry the struggle through to the end, it burns its way through to the race of marrow and melts apart the soul's fastenings there, like a ship's mooring lines, and lets the soul go free; but when it is the weaker, and the body, even as it melts, holds out against it, then the bile is defeated in its turn and either falls away through the whole body or is crowded down through the veins into the lower belly or up into the upper—like a fugitive from a city in civil strife, bursting out of

85a dissolve them most of all. White phlegm, when the air in its bubbles is trapped and causes trouble, but when it finds breath outside the body, is gentler; even so it makes the body spotted, producing white patches, rough scales, and related diseases. When it is mixed with black bile and spreads over the circuits in the head, which are the most divine, and disturbs them, it acts more gently when it comes during sleep, 85b but when it attacks people who are awake, it is harder to shake off; and since it is a disease of a divine part, it is most rightly called sacred. Sharp and salty phlegm is the source of all the diseases that come as runnings-down; and because the places it flows into are of all kinds, it has taken all kinds of names. Everything in the body said to be inflamed—named from burning and blazing—comes about entirely through bile. So when it finds breath outside, it boils and sends out all kinds of 85c swellings; when it is shut up inside, it causes many burnlike diseases; and the greatest harm comes when it mixes with pure blood and scatters the family of fibers out of their own order. These were spread through the blood so that it would have a balanced thinness and thickness, and would neither flow out as liquid through the porous body because of heat, nor again be too thick and hard to move, 85d so that it could barely circulate in the veins. The fibers keep this balance in the way nature forms things; when someone gathers them together even in dead blood that has gone cold, all the rest of the blood runs liquid; but if they are left alone, they quickly set along with the cold that surrounds the blood. Since the fibers have this power in the blood, bile—which by nature is old blood that has melted out of the flesh into the blood again—hot and wet, when it first seeps in little by little, sets 85e through the power of the fibers; and as it sets and is put out by force, it causes a chill and trembling inside.

Timaeus: When more of it flows in, it overpowers the fibers with its own heat, boils them up, and shakes them into disorder; and if it is strong enough to hold out to the end, it breaks through to the stuff of the marrow and burns it, and so loosens the soul's cables there like a ship's moorings, and sets it free. But when it is weaker and the body holds out as it is worn down, then it is overpowered and either breaks out all over the body, or is pushed down through the veins into the lower or the upper cavity, like a fugitive from a city in faction, out of

85a White phlegm, also, is dangerous when it is blocked inside because of the air in its bubbles; but when it has air-vents outside the body it is milder, although it marks the body with spots by breeding white scabs and tetters and the maladies akin thereto. And when this phlegm is blended with black bile and spreads over the revolutions of the head, which are the most divine, and perturbs them, 85b its action is more gentle during sleep, but when it attacks persons who are awake it is harder to shake off; and because it is a disease of the sacred substance it is most justly termed the sacred disease. Phlegm that is sharp and saline is the fount of all the maladies which are of the nature of catarrhs; and these have received all kinds of names because the regions into which they flow are of all varieties.

All those diseases which are called inflammations, owing to the burning and inflaming of the body which they involve, are caused by bile. This, when it gains an external outlet, 85c boils and sends up all kinds of eruptions; but when it is confined inside it produces many burning diseases; and of these the gravest occurs when the bile, being mixed with pure blood, displaces the matter of the fibrine from its proper position. For this fibrine is dispersed through the blood in order that the blood may have a due proportion of both rarity and density, and may neither flow out from the porous body through being liquefied by heat, nor yet prove immobile 85d through its density and circulate with difficulty in the veins. Of these qualities the fibrine preserves the due amount owing to the nature of its formation. Even when anyone collects together the fibrine of blood that is dead and in process of cooling, all the rest of the blood turns liquid; but if the fibrine is left alone as it is, it acts in combination with the surrounding cold and rapidly congeals the blood. As the fibrine, then, has this property, bile, which is naturally formed of old blood and dissolved again into blood from flesh, penetrates the blood gradually at first, while it is hot and moist, 85e and is congealed by this property of the fibrine; and as it becomes congealed and forcibly chilled it causes internal cold and shivering.

Timaeus: But when the bile flows in with more volume, it overpowers the fibrine by the heat it contains, and shakes it into disorder by its boiling up; and should it be capable of thus overpowering the fibrine continuously, it penetrates to the substance of the marrow and loosens from thence, by burning, the mooring-ropes of the soul, as it were of a ship, and sets it free. But when the bile is in smaller quantity and the body resists dissolution, then the bile itself is overpowered, and either it is ejected over the whole surface of the body, or else it is forced through the veins into the lower or the upper belly, being ejected from the body like fugitives from a city in revolt;